Germaine Greer should really keep her opinions to herself

Germaine Greer

Over recent months, Germaine Greer's rants about transgender people have become the stuff of legend - from her obnoxious "Trans women are not women because they don't know what it is like to have a smelly vagina" (we do - but we choose to wash them to keep them clean) - but it would appear from this comment that Greer is simply equating women to be walking vaginas (should have chosen your words better Germaine). Then her comment recently about Caitlyn Jenner "........Jenner’s transition was nothing more than a “desperate attempt” to steal attention away from the other females in her infamous family" (as if any transgender person would go through the pain and ostracisation of transition just for that - plus the occasional obnoxious remark from Ms. Greer) to her now most famous rant on BBC's 'Newsnight' show after she had been "no-platformed" by students at Cardiff University “Just because you lop off your d**k and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a f***ing woman. I’ve asked my doctor to give me long ears (that must be why she wears her hair long over her ears then) and liver spots (hmmmm, can't comment on that bit Germaine) and I’m going to wear a brown coat but that doesn’t turn me into a f***ing cocker spaniel." (no Germaine, I doubt you have ever identified as a cocker spaniel - but trans people have identified with the gender that we transition to since a very young age). It is also extremely strange that she never, ever rants about trans men having chest surgery or phalloplasty - all her venom is directed towards trans women. Maybe she is just insanely jealous of Jenna Talackova, Janet Mock, Laverne Cox and the many other beautiful transgender women out there in today's society. 

Let me inform you Germaine, it is never about being a better woman than you or any other women, it is about being proud of who we are, the battles that we have had to overcome, about being true to ourselves in a world that is hostile towards transgender people and made more hostile by your increasingly shrill and strident (and generally completely nonsensical) pronouncements about us. 

Whilst the concept of free speech should be upheld wherever possible, when that free speech threatens the life of people who are already victimised, then maybe it should be curtailed slightly. Nobody objects to the the voices of the far right BNP and Britain First being censored, yet there is a huge outcry by the TERF's when similarly damaging opinions expressed about transgender people (and transgender women particularly) are sought to be suppressed. Germaine Greer has immediate access to lots of publicity (so she is hardly being no-platformed) - she just picks up the phone, plays the "poor me, people are picking on me" card and she is immediately invited onto major television shows to discuss her opinions - opinions which are hugely damaging to transgender people. If I tried to do the same, then the BBC wouldn't even bother to return my call. When a prominent actress was invited onto the Victoria Derbyshire show to rebut Greer's outburst, Greer was also invited onto the show to debate the issue - she decided that she wouldn't debate it and just sent in a repeat of her previous foul mouthed statement.

Maybe the answer would be for Greer to read up about how eminent neuroscientists and other medical practitioners regard the aetiology of transsexuality and to see that the world (and gender) is not binary, a black or white choice - but a dazzling array of colours. Rather than expect the world to adjust to her myopic view of transgender people, for her to shift her way of thinking and to become more inclusive.

Whilst I would agree that as a young woman she shifted the dynamics of feminism in the sixties and seventies radically to change hearts and minds, she now fails to grasp that feminist theory has moved on since then and she is stuck in the past.

Any scientist will tell you that if the data doesn't fit the theory, you don't try to erase parts of the data so that the remaining data does fit the theory, you modify the theory so that all the data is explained by the theory. Greer and others such as Bindel, Moore et al, have failed to grasp that simple concept and so remain firmly welded to the past.

Another young trans woman of colour dies in the US.

Zella Ziona (from her Facebook page)
#BlackTransLivesMatter #‎MasculinitySoFragile‬

A young, 21 year old transgender woman of colour was murdered when a group of men who knew her from school decided to take her life whilst she was on her way to lay flowers on the grave of her grandmother who died a year ago. She was shot in the head several times and also in the groin - and died whilst she was being taken to hospital.

A guy who has been named as Rico Leblond has been arrested and charged with her murder and is trying to use a trans-panic defence to justify taking her life, According to Leblond,  Zella is said to have liked him and he shot her to stop his friends thinking that he liked her.

Is a man's perceived masculinity so frail that in order to justify that masculinity he has to murder anybody who might in any way threaten it? Another young woman's life is savagely and brutally taken away from her in order to inflate a man's ego.

This happens too many times, in the United States, in Central and South America. Already in the US alone this year 21 trans women have been murdered, the majority being trans women of colour.

RIP Zella Ziona  #alltranslivesmatter

Heathwatch Devon launches new survey for trans people

Healthwatch Devon acting as lead partner but in association with Healthwatch Torbay and Healthwatch Plymouth, have launched a survey asking for your experiences of Gender Identity Services in England. Your answers will help form a report that will be fed back to numerous organisations including NHS England. If you are transgender and live in England (not Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland) you can contribute towards the survey at:-
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HWGenderID

This survey is open to everybody in England but please be quick as the closing date for this survey is the 25th November 2015.

To request a postal survey please either telephone 0800 520 0640, email info@healthwatchdevon.co.uk or write to:
Healthwatch Devon,
FREEPOST RTEK-TZZT-RXAL
First Floor, 3 & 4 Cranmere Court,
Lustleigh Close,
Matford Business Park,
Exeter
EX2 8PW

Please consider contributing to this survey - the results will be fed back up to NHS England as a means of forcing NHS England to allow more money to flow into the GIC's to help with recruiting more personnel (surgeons, psychiatrists, psychologists) to help end the long queues for treatment.
Every single contribution will help their efforts as it will provide hard statistics that they can then use to bring about change. Sitting back and doing nothing will not help to bring about this change.

I should add that it was because of the efforts of Healthwatch Torbay and others that the funding shortfall was rescinded last October - so providing hard statistics for Healthwatches to operate with does produce results.
 
Don't just sit back and moan that they never listen (like one person did last night in a PM) - do something POSITIVE to bring about much needed change.

National Diversity Awards 2015 (2)

Just received from the National Diversity Awards Team:-

Dear National Diversity Awards 2015 Attendees,

Thank you all for coming to what was a truly inspiring and special evening.

The team here at The National Diversity Awards wanted to extend our thanks for attending and being a part of such a fabulous evening, celebrating the amazing achievements of some of the UK’s most inspirational and selfless individuals and groups. You all contributed and played a part in ensuring that the ceremony was an evening none of us will ever forget.

To our Shortlisted Nominees.. you should all be immensely proud of yourselves. Whether you walked out of The Anglican Cathedral on Friday evening with an award in your hand or not, you are all worthy winners, and your work will continue to inspire and encourage millions of people every day. Please use your shortlisted stance to gain recognition for your hard work, your dedication is valued more than you will ever realise.

Photographs from the evenings celebrations are available to view on The National Diversity Awards Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/NationalDiversityAwards?ref=hl – if you spot yourselves or any of your guests please feel free to tag away!!

Any kind words regarding The National Diversity Awards 2015 would be gratefully received, and happily showcased via our social media outlets and on The National Diversity Awards website.

Once again, Thank You to each and every one of you. You are all simply amazing!! I hope to see you again next year at The National Diversity Awards 2016!!

Kind Regards,

Paul Sesay & The National Diversity Awards Team

National Diversity Awards 2015

National Diversity Awards 2015 - Liverpool Anglican Cathedral - Lifetime Achiever Award

I would like to sincerely thank all the people that nominated me, the people who took time out to vote for me and the people who gave up their time to record a video of their support for me.  Although I didn't win this coveted award this year, it was a huge honour to be even shortlisted for this category which measures an individual's achievements over their lifetime and not just a single incident or a short time span.

The event was awesome and the way it was put together was breathtaking. When we walked into the cathedral (the old Gothic one which dominates the Liverpool skyline) we were dumbstruck with the beauty of the place - and the fabulous atmosphere which was generated.  I was overwhelmed and deeply honoured to be in such prestigious company (but I have had feedback from several people who were on our table saying that they felt honoured to be in my company - which I find difficult to believe as I am just a wee small cog in a very large wheel).

What I was left with however, was the fact that if everybody valued and believed in equality and diversity like everybody there did, there would be no more wars, no more famine and the world would be an infinitely better place to live. Maybe it is time for our politicians to grow up and start believing in this and put aside their petty, ideological squabbles and worked for the people of this planet instead of themselves or their friends.

My grateful thanks to the organisers of this event - I personally found it profoundly moving and deeply inspirational - a wonderful tribute to the many individuals who give up a major part of their lives (very often unpaid) for the betterment of the lives of other people. Thank you.

New website for Transfigurations

Our new, mobile friendly website at http://transfigurations.org.uk

We have now launched our new website for Transfigurations (see above) which has been redesigned from the bottom up to be mobile device friendly (smartphones and tablets).  During this upgrade we also decided to move the site to our other domain, so the new site can now be found at:-

http://transfigurations.org.uk

Once you have visited the site, if you have any feedback, please let us know by either leaving a comment below - or contacting us via our Contact Page.

Awareness Raising Day with the General Public

 

Erecting our gazebo on the new by-pass into Torquay

The road into Torbay is finally being dualled (it's only been on the cards for 60 years) and by-passes the notorious bottleneck of the journey between Newton Abbot and the outskirts of Torquay.

A section of the road was opened to the general public for them to see how it was progressing and voluntary organisations and businesses were given the opportunity to have stalls along part of the route and our application to have a stand was accepted, so we were out there and in the faces of the general public.

It was an extremely well attended event, with 3,000 tickets being released to the general public in advance of the viewing of the progress.

We were delighted to be able to have this opportunity to be out and proud - and spoke to many people about the lives of transgender people and as an awareness raising event, we managed to educate many people and the one thing that kept on coming back to us was respect from those people.
 
I think that even as little as 10 years ago, attending this type of event would have been very difficult, but I do think people are becoming more tolerant and understanding, yes, there are many Neanderthals still out there, but society is changing in its attitude towards transgender people. The battle for acceptance is not yet won, but each minor squirmish that results in greater understanding is a milestone towards that eventual victory.

We would like to express our gratitude to Galliford Try, the main constructors of the new South Devon Highway, for hosting this event and giving us the opportunity to interact with the public in this manner.

General view of the South Devon Highway which will never be seen again (full of gazebos and pedestrians)

NHS Consultation regarding Trans Children & Adolescents

#‎NHSGenderID‬

Very interesting day yesterday at the workshop on the Service Specification for Gender Identity Services for Children and Adolescents held at the Coin Street Neighbour Centre in London SW1.
Although the present protocol is working for some, many others are being let down, not only by the Tavistock, but by GP's and CAMHS (which has long waiting lists) - and sadly this means young people are put at risk of self-harming, self mutilation and suicide. They also risk a poorer level of education than their peers as the depression and other side effects of GD can seriously affect their ability to study.
The workshop recognised this and the NHS is open to change - but it is vitally important for transgender children and adolescents that the decisions reached during the workshop need to be implemented in the very near future - not in 18 months to 2 years time.

New Home for Transfigurations

It was a sad day last Tuesday when we left the building that had been our home these last six months - six months that has seen a 400% increase in those people attending our meetings, but alas, as they say - all good things must come to an end.

Cool Recovery, an organisation which supports many vulnerable people here in South Devon had to go into voluntary liquidation due to lack of funding so that they were no longer able to pay for the building, Cool House,  which they have had in Torquay for the last 17 years.  Its loss will be severely felt by the local community, many people depended on the services that it provided - so others than ourselves will feel this loss to the whole community greatly.

We have been fortunate though, to secure the use of another building - from where we hope to expand the services that we provide even more.  As from the 3rd June 2015 we will be holding our future meetings in the Chelston Community Centre in the Chelston area of Torquay (click here to visit Google maps to find our location).

The building is approached via an unnamed access road situated to the left of Crispins Fish and Chip shop on Old Mill Road in Chelston:-

 

 About 50 yards down that access road you will find our new meeting venue:-
 

 

To Hate or Not to Hate

A debate was recently started when I was arranging a Transgender Day of Remembrance service in my home town.  It was planned as the culmination of Transgender Awareness Week where transgender people reach out into the wider community to make all people more aware of the issues which transgender people face every day of our lives and to this end our TDoR event was planned to be open to everybody in the hope that by being inclusive we could show people the tragic and horrific end results of unbridled transphobia.

Invitations were sent out to various groups like Samaritans, Torbay Healthwatch, Torbay Community Development Trust, Torbay and South Devon Healthcare Trust, Devon and Cornwall Police and local politicians of all parties - for these are the people who can make a difference to the lives of transgender people in a positive way.  All have responded and willingly accepted our invitations. The Devon and Cornwall Police even offered to help support our event by donating some funding to allow us to provide food and refreshments for everybody attending and the local Healthcare Trust kindly donated their conference facilities for the evening at no charge.

One local politician, who incidentally is fully supportive of LGB and, in this case, perhaps more importantly, T rights (and who also walked out of a council meeting because he was refused leave by the Chair of the Council, to ask questions about violence against women and children in the Torbay area) accepted the invitation. 

A furore of condemnation from certain people erupted because of this. 
Why???
Purely because he represents UKIP as a local councillor.  Many of the remarks said that he should be excluded (despite his previous support for LGBT rights).  That he had no right to even be in the room.  One person remarked that she could not even sit in the same room as somebody who represented UKIP.

Don’t these remarks sound very similar to those from TERF activists or to the many people who would exclude us  from any public space - the politics of hatred, the politics of denying us our right to be who we are?  Surely we as a community are better than that?  We decry people who refuse to listen to our voices and reject our arguments for inclusion for being bigots - if we start doing the same and excluding people (in spite of them being supportive of our demand for equality) does this not make us just as bigoted as they are?

To enable positive change we have to engage with people outside our community and this includes politicians (of all parties) and if people want to learn and then act to help us achieve better healthcare, better housing, safe and secure employment then I, personally, welcome this - as I would hope that most fair minded people would.

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2014

Transfigurations will be holding an event to memorialise those people who have lost their lives to transphobic rage and bigotry.  The event will be held in the Horizon Centre - the Education and Development Centre of Torbay Hospital in Torquay, South Devon UK.
You can find it here on Google maps.
If you wish to attend, could you please put you name down for the event here or email me at this temporary email address here

Telephone Support Line Now OPEN

 Tel: 07476 15 17 17

I am really pleased to announce that some funding has been kindly donated to Transfigurations by Devon and Cornwall Police, with this funding it is now possible to open our confidential helpline. This will initially be staffed on a Wednesday and Sunday evening (except the first Wednesday of every month) from 6:00pm until midnight. Please note that at this moment it not a freephone number, it is a standard mobile number and any calls you make will be credited to your account (although if you have free minutes available on your phone plan, it will be included in your monthly allowance). We will announce extensions to these opening times once we have looked at call pattern usage.
Hopefully it will be possible for us to attract sufficient funding for this to be a freephone number at some point in the future.

Please Note: On days that the helpline is not available, you can send me a text message and I will try and get in contact with you as quickly as possible.  
Confidentiality:
All information which you might reveal about yourself (such as your name, address, telephone number) will be kept absolutely confidential and will only be accessible to the Management Team of Transfigurations and held securely.
The only time that confidentiality will be breached is if a child or a vulnerable adult (please see our Policy Documents for details) is believed to be at risk of harm. This will only be done after consultation with the Management team and is something that would not be done lightly.

New reporting options for hate crime

Survey on psychological harm done by shortfalls in funding for surgery

Announcements have been made by several GIC's that NHS England is running out of funding this year - for example, the Laurel's GIC in Exeter has recently announced that they will be unable to fund any surgeries for patients from some time in November through to next April when NHS England's next fiscal year commences.

This has been caused in part by the large increase in the number of people who have come forward over the last few years and presented as being transgender, this in turn has put considerable pressure on the budget that NHS England has for all the speciality commissioned services, gender reassignment surgery being one of those services.

Many people are blaming the NHS, but in fairness to them, it really isn't their fault - this government keeps cutting the amount of funding to the NHS and specialised services are one area where the axe falls hardest - especially the funding for transgender services as the general public tends not to rate money spent in this area very high on their list of priorities, which isn't helped by negative press from such "newspapers" such as the Daily Mail.

However, these funding shortfalls are having a devastating affect on the lives of transgender people - they go by the book and complete what is mandated of them by the GIC's by completing their RLE's, fully expecting their referral at the end of that period - and then they are told "Sorry, the money has run out now, you will have to wait until next year for your referral".

Has this affected you?  Will it affect you in the next few months?

This is what this survey is about.  If your life, your mental health, your physical health has been affected on hearing about these funding shortfalls, please tell us about it - hopefully if enough people are being affected, then we can pressure NHS England to look again and try to get extra funding.

Please tell us about how the news of these shortfalls in funding and the delays due to shortage of qualified surgeons has affected you.  Your voice can make a difference.

Take the survey here

Transgender surgery vs bariatric surgery

Today it was being announced that people with a BMI of 30+ would be offered bariatric surgery soon - at a much higher cost than the majority of gender reassignment surgery.
Being overweight, for many people, is a lifestyle choice - being transgender isn't.

I wonder when the Daily Mail will be running with screaming headlines condemning the NHS for wasting billions of pounds more on these people, will they be calling them scum and a waste of taxpayers money - as they so often like to do with the relatively very small numbers of people who need gender reallignment surgery.  I sincerely doubt it because I should imagine quite a substantial proportion of their readership will fall into this category and they cannot afford to alienate them.

UK Register of trans friendly doctors and GP's

The following is a plea for those who are under the care of an understanding and compassionate doctor/GP.  I am running a survey on doctors in the UK who are transgender friendly and I need you to take part in a small survey.

Coming out and leading up to transition can arguably be the most stressful thing than any person ever does (the surgery itself was, for me at least, one of the least stressful) and so it is important to have the details of a good GP who you know will be sympathetic to the stresses that you will experience.

Having a national database of trans friendly GP's can save lives. The survey will take around 3-5 minutes of your time and could save somebody's life - now that is 3 to 5 mins well spent, wouldn't you agree?

The suvey can be found here.

If you have had a terrible experience at the hands of a GP, then you can also report it on the survey - but please be sure to only state any facts and not conjecture or supposition.

If you are needing to find a good GP then the results of the survey are updated daily (at the moment) and you can download the PDF from here.  This register is searchable (so you can search on a postcode - for example TQ1 or PO4).  You have to download the PDF, save it to your hard drive and then open it up in Adobe Acrobat Reader to be able to access the search function though).

Mother of Trans Child takes on Paul Dacre and the Mail on Sunday

Following on from the Mail on Sunday's demonisation last week of the medical team that treats transgender children at the Tavistock and Portman Institude (see my blog about this here), a mother of a transgender child was so incensed by the article that she wrote a rejoinder which was published this week in the Sunday Observer which you can read here.

The article was published under the title "Transgender children know their identity. Bigots in the media don't" and told the story of her daughter's struggle to be who she really is - and the consequences of what happens when people seek to deny them this right.

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA Test) for Transgender Women

An abdominal aortic aneurysm is an enlargement of the main blood vessel in the abdomen and if left untreated it can be fatal. Men aged 65+ are most at risk. A simple scan can tell you if you have an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The Exeter and South Devon AAA Screening Programme sends screening invitations to men during the year they turn 65. Any men over 65 who have not already been screened can arrange an appointment by calling 01803 655441.
 
In addition if your gender is different now from that recorded at birth, you may still need to be screened.  Please contact 01803 655441 to self-refer. If you are a M2F transgender person living in the South Devon area and would like some further information about this, then read on.

I was fortunate to meet and talk at length to two members of the AAA screening team at the NHS Annual Equality Engagement Event symposium held in Torquay where they had a display stand.

They were very keen to reassure me of the total respect that they have for trans women and the problems that we might have in approaching them to book a screening. They reassured me that they will do their utmost best to help any trans person who approaches them to have their screening done without causing any embarrassment or fear of outing them.
To this end they have supplied me with a personal email address of the the leader of the team so that anybody who wishes to have a screening done can have a conversation with her about your privacy. All the team are well versed in Equality and Diversity issues and you will be treated with absolute respect.

Please use the contact form on the Transfigurations website  to contact me for her email address.

Breaking News:
Lynda has emailed me with a very important announcement to say that they are hoping (in the very near future) to take their screening services to the Laurels Clinic in Exeter (our Gender Identity Clinic here in the South West) so that screenings can be carried out at that location where anybody who is reluctant to be screened at one of their other locations, can be screened where they might feel more safe and at ease. I will update this page when it has been confirmed and let you have the dates when they will be at the Laurels.

If you live outside the South Devon Healthcare Foundation Trust's borders, then please contact the AAA screening unit for your area in order to have your screening carried out.

Why are Paul Dacre and the Daily Mail/Sunday Mail so Transphobic?

It is a question which really needs asking for the number of transgender people in the UK is actually quite small and the cost of effective treatments are miniscule if you consider the costs of non-intervention (depression and the cost of treatments for that, hospital costs for suicide attempts, ruined lives).  The Daily Mail and it's writers often sensationalise the cost of treatments yet always ignore the the much higher costs of failure to treat. Instead of educating their readers, they prefer to pander to their irrational phobias and dislikes which can have disastrous consequences as was witnessed when Richard Littlejohn decided to turn his own personal phobias onto Lucy Meadows.

Only a week after 6 major British newspapers were castigated for their "reporting" of another story about a transgender woman and their subsequent retractions of their "stories", the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday rolls out another epic piece of mis-information (which they actually published about a year ago - but, like a dog with a bone, they simply cannot leave alone and return to the same meme time and time again).

I did leave a comment in their comments section below the story that they ran which put the alternative viewpoint (very short due to the limited number of characters that you are allowed) but not surprisingly, they failed to publish this comment, prefering to publish the comments of their xenophobic/transphobic readers.

After a slight truce after their tragic hounding of Lucy Meadows and the subsequent castigation by the coroner who oversaw her inquest of the British press (and the Daily Mail in particular), the Daily Mail again shows its true colours as a paper consumed with transphobia.

Under an article whose headline screamed "NHS to give sex-change drugs to 9 year olds", the article proceeds to denounce the Tavistock and Portman Institute with a web of innuendos and lies.

Just the headline itself is pejorative with its use of the word "drugs"  and the complete phrase is wrong as puberty blockers on their own will never change a person's secondary sexual characteristics - even if they were to be taken all of their lives.  All they will do is prevent that person from entering puberty.  The compounds are not hormones, they are peptide molecules which bind to the normal hormone receptor sites in the pituitary gland and so block the hormones from binding there - this suppresses the release of luteinising hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) from the pituitary. In males, this reduction in LH subsequently leads to rapid suppression of testosterone release from the testes; in females it leads to suppression of oestrogen release from the ovaries).  These compound have been used since the early 1980's to suppress the puberty of young girls after they showed signs of entering puberty at a very young age.  Has the Mail ever campaigned against these GnRH agonists when used in these 7 to 9 year old children?  No they have not, presumeably because they are in favour of them being used in this way.

They go on to assert that these compounds can lead to permanent bone damage, but recent research by Dutch paediatricians has shown that after the introduction of cross-sex hormone therapy (or cessation of treatment with GnRH agonists), bone mass quickly reverts to normal values.  So this part of the story is a complete distortion of the truth.

The truth is that early intervention saves lives - as one mother of a transgender child said "I would rather have a living transgender daughter than a dead son" and when you consider the effect of not giving these children these blockers (depression, self harm, suicide attempts, reduced academic attainments, poor self esteem etc) plus you are subjecting them to painful (and expensive) treatments later in life such as electrolysis/laser treatments to remove facial hair, facial feminsation surgery to reduce the effects of masculinisation of the bone structure of the face (never completely reversible) and possibly breast augmentation surgery, or mastectomies for f2m trans men, when they do ultimately transition - then the medical profession is abiding by their committment to "do no harm" - especially in light of the fact that the effects of the GnRH agonist blockers are completely reversible if the person subsequently decides that they do not wish to proceed with their transition.  All they are doing in effect is buying the young person time - time to really find out who they are so that if they do subsequently decide to continue with their transition, they will not have to try to undo the effects of a wrong puberty.  Trans children would not be given the option of cross-sex hormone therapy until they are 16 or older - and old enough to fully comprehend what taking cross-sex hormone therapy involves.  Conversely, if they do decide to not go ahead with their transition, the GnRH agonist (puberty blocking) treatment can be stopped and the person allowed to go through the puberty of their natal sex - without any damage being done.

In a Radio 5 Live program aired on the Sunday evening, Dr. Polly Carmichael (clinical lead at the Tavistock and Portman Institute) was quite clear on the benefits which these GnRH agonists can have on young transgender children and re-iterated that children normally have to enter into a certain stage of puberty before they are given (Tanner stage 2 or later).  She went on to explain that prior to puberty, many children who show signs of being transgender change their minds on entering puberty, very few who express themselves as being transgender when they reach puberty actually revert back to their natal sex - 80% transition.  To withhold treatment at this age would be to consign that child to an unwanted puberty and put their health at risk (and risk them self harming or attempting suicide).  Perhaps the following video might also help:-



By publishing scare stories such as this, the Mail newspaper empire is guilty of mis-information that could lead to young people self harming or tragically taking their own lives.

I have today submitted a complaint to Press Complaints Commission about this article on grounds of accuracy and discrimination.  Hopefully others will do likewise to tell the Mail newspaper empire that trans people will not stand idly by and let inaccurate and discriminatory reporting like this be published without challenge.

Later:
The mother of a transgender child has written a brilliant rejoinder to this article which has been published in the Observer newspaper today.  I have also included a short post about it in this blog here.

Transfigurations Brochure

Our new brochure for the Transfigurations group has just been created which you can download from the website, here's a sneak preview of the 3 fold double sided brochure:-

Click on image to download the brochure